First of all, Buschermohle is made up. No question about it.Woody - You were pretty hard on Jodie Meeks and his 54-point performance against Tennessee. Would you have been a little more enthusiastic if it weren't against your alma mater?
-- Tom Buschermohle, Louisville, Ky.Tom - I wasn't hard on Meeks. I just said I didn't think it was that big a deal. And it had nothing to do with Tennessee. I saw Pete Maravich do it several times. I saw several other players accomplish the feat. And it doesn't matter what I think, anyway.
I was accused by Kentuckians of being biased against Kentucky basketball. I spent a year, almost every night, with Adolph Rupp, and I came to have the utmost respect for the program (except that Rupp was so late to recruit black players), and I loved Dan Issel and Louie Dampier, for instance. Just show me, Jodie, that you can do it again. One-hit wonders don't impress me.
Now, for Woody's asinine answer. He didn't see it as a big deal. Besides, crappy ol' Pete Maravich did it all the time. Do it again, Jodie, if you want to impress Woody. Go out on the road and score 54 against a good team...again. Then he'll be impressed. Woody's right about one thing, though: what he thinks doesn't matter.
Also, are we to assume that Meeks hasn't had an impressive season without the UT game? Had he gone for 30, he'd still be one of the country's top scorers.
I think the media, as a whole, reacted properly in the aftermath. It led Sportscenter, people kind of freaked out about it, and he got a ton of deserved praise and attention. However, if Stephen Curry would have scored 54, ESPN would still be digging themselves out of a pile of their own man-juice.
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It's interesting that Paige repeats the claim about Adolph Rupp being 'late' to recruit black players, yet the fact of the matter is that Rupp was the FIRST SEC coach to recruit a black player, when he offered a scholarship to Wes Unseld in 1964. (and subsequently recruited black players every year after that.)
This was BEFORE the Civil Rights Act was passed, mind you. Rupp and UK went to the trouble of working out details with Mississippi and Mississippi State to hold their games in Memphis because they didn't think it was feasible to play on their campuses with an integrated team.
Where was Tennessee in all of this ? Why isn't Paige, who apparently went to UT, sore at the Tennessee coach and administration etc. about being behind Kentucky in this regard ? (not to mention Tennessee being nearly 15 years later than UK in hosting black players on their campus)
Personally I think everyone deserves criticism, but I'm sick of hypocritical people like Paige singling out UK when there's plenty of blame to go around.
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